Flood 2.0

As a school and as a mission, we never wanted to relive this story again.  2012 was enough.  God had spared us in amazing ways.  He had helped us rebuild and come back to our compounds with safer walls that would protect us from the river's threat during rainy season. We were thankful that we could look back and recount all the ways that God had been faithful but had it been our choice that would have been a book we never reopened after the last chapter had been read.

But that is not the story that is being written. Instead we have had a very heavy season of rain and our team of guys watching the river kept seeing the water level go up and up, passing the level that caused the 2012 flood and going up.  They sandbagged. The dyke held. The water level went down and then back up. Our section of the dyke held.  But downriver from us water began pouring in filling the areas behind our walls, walls where a threat had not been anticipated in the past.

Sunday evening we sat on the steps of our Admin building trying to decide the best course of action.  We would give it one more night and reevaluate in the morning.  By 8 am on Monday morning the road to Sahel Academy was impassable by small vehicles and we were starting to enact our evacuation plan, going through the school and putting everything up waist high or more.  I worked together with our elementary team.

At 2:26, I took a moment to look out the window from the second story of our elementary building.  This is what I saw.

I could see all that water being held back by our wall and I could see houses in the distance where it looked as though the water was half way up the doors.  Honestly, it felt like it was only a matter of time, especially when we began to see water leaking through several of the seams.  We continued to work.

Around 4:15, the elementary principal came running around the building shouting that the wall had broken.  There were three of us in the same area and we hopped in one of our colleagues cars and we tore out of that area to one of the higher points on campus.  I didn't want her car to be under water.  I ran by the house of a family in quarantine to yell at them and tell them the wall had broken and then I ran towards my classroom where I had left my phone plugged in to charge. I grabbed it and my water bottle and waited for the principal who had run back to the area as well.  While I waited I watched the water pour in where the wall had broken.  This was not a story that we wanted to be ours and yet here we were again.  

When it was all said and done, we waded out to the front entrance in water that was up to our chests.  It is the first and the last time I hope to be taking a selfie in the Niger river!

I lay in bed Tuesday morning with a barely functioning brain.  Too tired to even open my Bible, God brought the words of 1 Peter 2:23 to mind.  I add a little more here for context:  "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly."  As you can well imagine there are just SO MANY questions.  In the face of those questions, I have the challenge of walking the same road that my Saviour walked, one of continuing to entrust myself, my colleagues, this ministry and our mission to the Father.  He is sovereign and He knows what He wants to accomplish in this that will bring glory to His name.

Here are some things He has already done:

• In those last hours, He sent some strong young men who helped us move alot of things to our second floor where they are dry and safe.
• Just minutes before the wall broke, several men were standing in front of it inspecting the leaks.  When it broke, no one was there.
• He held back the water until the last bit of chemicals in our science lab were carefully stored upstairs.
• He gave one of our guys the foresight to turn off the electricity to the whole campus so that when water began pouring in we had one less thing to worry about.
• He sent some men in through the wall who stuck with us and helped us put up a bunch of last minute things in the elementary, computer lab and some colleagues' houses that hadn't had time to prepare.
• Passports, wallets and lost pets have been recovered.
• He has given us joy and laughter even in the midst of tears.

He is good and worthy of our praise.

School was to have started on September 1.  We are in the midst of trying to recover as much as possible from homes and the school and we need time to regroup and make decisions about the future.  We covet your prayers for wise decision making, for health and safety for those wading into the water and for God's provision of new homes and school buildings.  For several colleagues, this is the second time they have been through this.  Many of our leaders, including our SIM Niger Director, treasurer and the Sahel Academy Director and their families were all living on these compounds.  This means they are dealing with this loss and having to make important decisions about ministries simultaneously. Many of our Nigerien colleagues' homes are being threatened or have already been lost.  Please pray that all will know and experience the loving care of the Father. 

Spontaneous Visit to See the Squash

Every year about this time boatloads of squash come floating up the river on giant pirogues.  I always think to myself, "I should go by there and get some pictures."  But of course, it never happens partly because that area has been a bear to park in and partly because I'm usually tired and on my way home so my desire to get home outweighs my desire for pictures of squash on giant pirogues.  However, now there is an easily accessible area in which one can park so when I drove by this morning and saw this view as I crossed the bridge...

 

I decided it was worth the effort to go back because of the cool reflections. After parking my car, I walked across the road and not unexpectedly, a man quickly offered to be my "guide" to the squash experience.

These pirogues come up the river from Benin (if I'm not mistaken) and they pull up as close as possible to the bank. The squash is then thrown overboard and floated to shore which you can see in the right hand corner of this picture.

My squash guide informed me that on shore they are placed into piles of 100.

 

Then the piles are sold.  With two boats having been unloaded and another one in process, you can imagine that the squash business was hopping on this particular day.  There were people buying and selling everywhere.

Once the piles of squash have been purchased they are carried up the side of the bridge and placed on trucks which will take them to markets and other places to be distributed and resold.

My squash guide took me to his pirogue which he said was broken and taking on water.  He felt I needed my picture taken in the pirogue and assured me that he had experience with a camera.  He then proceeded to move the camera about wildly searching for me in the view finder and this was what his first try produced.

Excellent!  I think he might have just pressed the button the minute he located a part of me.  Second attempt was better. (Please excuse the dirty work clothes.)

Then he insisted on taking my picture next to the very picturesque water pumps.  I'll be treasuring this one for a long time to come!

Later I posed with the squash.

I insisted that my self-appointed guide also have his picture taken with the squash.

Don't think that you can't be cool and love your squash too! 

It goes without saying my guide pretty much made this spontaneous trip to the squash patch everything that it was.

Bumpers Were Made to Help a Brother Out

It's time for another episode of As Seen On the Bridge.  It sounds a little like a soap opera doesn't it?

This is a scene I see quite frequently around the city.

The first time I saw it I wondered what in the world was going on.  After observing for a minute or two, I realized that the first motorcyclist had broken down.  The second motorcyclist, most likely a stranger, came up behind the first and placed his foot on the first motorcyclist's foot pedal, thus using the power of his motorbike to propel himself and his new friend's bike forward.  They rode like this until they reached a repair shop or a gas station depending on what the problem was.  This is a fairly common occurance in the city and doesn't really surprise me any more.

It was, however, a surprise yesterday afternoon when I saw it happen with cars.

I was crossing the bridge when traffic began to slow down due to a taxi which had broken down.  The taxi directly behind it looked to be going around the first taxi when suddenly, he stopped and pulled in right behind him.  I thought perhaps he was going to give him a jump but instead he pulled up right behind the first taxi bumper to bumper and then began to push him all the way across the bridge.  Ingenious!

Now that's something you don't see every day!

Hood Ornament? or Cooking for a Crowd?

Time for another episode of

As Seen On The Bridge! 

This week I was driving across the bridge and I passed a fully loaded van with three green strainers attached to the grill. 

Is this someone's idea of a cool hood ornament? 

Granted, it can't quite compete with the bull horns. 

But what it lacks in the coolness factor it makes up for in it's utility.

Imagine you are on the road and you suddenly get struck by a hunger pang.  You pull over, start the fire, throw in the spaghetti, unhook your strainer from the grill, drain out the water and fix yourself a nice plate of spaghetti.

"Why 3?"

you might ask yourself.

Well it's rare that one should travel in a bush taxi alone...

so three green strainers insure that should the entire bush taxi be struck by a collective hunger pang you will have adequate straining power.

This is what some people like to refer to as "cooking for a crowd."

As Seen On the Bridge

Oh my, I love the bridge.  That's where all the funny stuff happens.  Picture it with me, if you will.  Samantha and I pull up to the stop light where we notice a man and a boy on a moto and stuffed between the two of them is a full grown sheep.  So I say to Sam, "Too bad you don't have your camera out and you could take a picture."  She hurriedly proceeds to get it out and we chase them down for a picture on the straightaway towards the bridge.  We get to the corner and suddenly I see the sheep's tail lift up.  Uhoh, that's not good...that's a sure sign and yes indeed, here it comes - poop - basically right into the kid's hand.  Then the sheep decides that he is not happy to be sandwiched between two people on a moto...so now the kid has a pooping, bucking sheep and why don't we just throw a traffic jam in there for good measure.  Ahh yes, another unforgettable moment on the bridge!

As Seen on the Bridge

My neighbor, Laurence, was saying how great it would be if we could just have a camera in the tip of our finger. This would be handy here in Niger for taking pictures unobtrusively and for those moments that just crack you up and you wish you had your camera with you. Tonight was one of those moments. I just had to laugh.

This is what I saw. Can't you just picture the scene of the accident?

"What do you mean, Officer?

There's no way I had an obstructed view!"